Stephanie's Big Secret
by ILoveTartz
Summary: Stephanie has a secret. She has a daughter, who lives on the other side of the country. Curious yet? Read more! Rating may change.
1. Chapter 1

I have a secret.

A pretty big one.

Yep, 13 years old, 5'5", 105 lbs. My daughter, Halona Chayes, but I usually call her Halley (Pronounced Hal-ee). She lives in California with her Dad.

Oh, do I hate her dad.

You see, a little while after Dickie, I met a Native American guy in my search for a job. He gave me a job at his company, Chayes Accounting. Yep, I was an accountant.

After a while, I got to know him better. His name was Chogan Chayes, he had three sisters, he grew up on a natives reserve, had no children, had never been married. I thought I knew absolutely everything about him. Well, nope!

We went out for about nine months. Then I became pregnant, with Chogan's child. Nine months later, I gave birth to Halona Chayes, who had her father's Native American features, but her skin was a shade lighter. She was, and is, beautiful.

I thought everything was going great, until I found out about Chogan's past, three years later. Turns out, he'd been arrested for rape and assault a couple of times. I was appalled, and our break-up was even bigger than mine and the Dick's. Not only was he a rapist and abuser, but he didn't tell me! I trusted him, with me, with my daughter.

We had a huge lawsuit, over the custody of Halona. She was three at the time. Chogan had a better lawyer, more money, a better job (Because he was the owner and I quit the day before), didn't live in a run-down apartment, etc. So he won the lawsuit and custody of Halona, and after how angry I was at him, he got the heck out of dodge and moved with Halona to California. All the way across the freaking country.

I still go down to visit sometimes, or video-chat, or email or call Halona. I love her, more than anyone I've ever loved before. The only people who know about her are my parents, Valerie, Mary Lou, and Grandma. Everyone else who knew about Me and Chogan think Halona was killed in a car accident.

I opened up a new email from her.

_Hey Mom, how was your day?_

**It was pretty good, **I reply, **Finally got rid of Morelli, once and for all. **I broke up with him after I caught him with Terri Gilman on the kitchen table. Deja vu...

_ That's awesome!_ She sends back. _I always liked Ranger better._

That makes me laugh out loud. **So, how are you doing?**

_Well, can you video call me?_

This is weird, she usually doesn't Video-chat with me this late. I can never refuse seeing my daughter's face though, so I press call on Skype.

I immediately gasp as I see Halley. Her normally beautiful skin is covered in bruises. "Halley, what the hell happened?" I yell, probably waking up half the seniors on my floor.

Next she says three words that tear my heart apart and make me tear up. "It was Dad."

**Hey guys, starting a new FF. I really wanted to write one of these. This chapter's kinda short but I'll hopefully have another one up soon.**

**R&R!  
BYE BYE!  
~XxBabeLoverxX**


	2. Chapter 2

_ I immediately gasp as I see Halley. Her normally beautiful skin is covered in bruises. "Halley, what the hell happened?" I yell, probably waking up half the seniors on my floor._

_ Next she says three words that tear my heart apart and make me tear up. "It was Dad."_

Tears fall down my face and I have to shove my head between my knees to stop from passing out. As soon as the black dots disappeared I lifted my head up and started talking to Halley. "Can you tell me what happened?" I asked.

"When I got home from school yesterday Dad was drunk. He was saying something about losing his job, then he hit me. He hit me a lot," She sobs quietly.

"Okay Halley, is he there now?"

"Yeah, he's passed out downstairs." she answered.

"Okay, I want you to move your bed in front of your door and I'm going to call child services." I told her.

Halona looked very, very scared. "Am I going to have to have a foster mom?" She asked.

"Of course not," I replied, "I'll get full custody and you can come up here."

"Then I can meet Ranger!" She exclaims happily.

"Yes, you can meet Ranger," I replied, laughing. It's funny how she can make me laugh, even in the worst situations. I end the call with her, and open a new window on my laptop to look up Los Angeles child services. I use my cell phone to call the number.

"LA child services, how may I help you?" A lady answered.

"There is a child who was beaten; her father is passed out downstairs. She is at 2193 Baker's Avenue." I said hurriedly.

"Alright ma'am, we'll send police over right away. How did you find out?" She asked.

"I'm her mother. I live in Trenton, New Jersey, but I was just video-chatting with her and she told me all about it." I replied, my voice wavering slightly.

"Oh dear. Are you going to ask for full custody?" she asked.  
"There is no way I'm not."

"I'll write down your number, and call you back when we find out what will happen," She said.

"Okay," I replied

I tell her my name and number and call Halley back.

"Mom, it's the po-po!" Halley exclaimed.

I laugh yet again. I seem to be doing a lot of laughing. "You know, you're taking this amazingly well."

"Well, the coppers are here, so I figure I'm okay," She said.

"Hard to argue with that logic. By the way, you may want to move the bed back."

"Oh come on! I just moved it!" There is a sound from downstairs, the police coming in and Chogan waking up. It sounded kind of like a dying bear. "He sounds like a dying bear," Halona adds. Is that ESP or what?

Quickly, Halona moved her bed back to it's original position, wincing because of her bruises. She also winces when she walks, and walks funny. As soon as the bed is moved, the door crashes open and two police officers come in.

"Hey," she said, and waved. Only Halona. The cops holster their guns, and start talking to her.

"Miss, you'll have to come with us."

"'Kay." She walks over to the computer. "Bye, Mom! Talk to you later." she hangs up. I sit there numbly for about half an hour, when my cell phone rings. I pick up immediately.

"Is this Stephanie Plum?" The same woman from before asks.

"Yes. What's happening?" I ask.

"Well, you need to sign some papers, then you can get her. Do you want to fax them or do you want to come down here?" She asks.

"I'll come down. What are they doing with Chogan?" I ask.

"Well, he's in a holding cell right now. Because of his past problems, the bail will be set pretty high."

We made arrangements for me to come to california to sign papers and get Halona. I was ecstatic, but I was worried about the extra costs, and raising a child. It's a good thing I started working for Rangeman, doing searches and distractions. I still did some lower bonds for Vinnie sometimes. I'd have to get a different apartment, one with two bedrooms. Maybe I'll ask my parents for money to go to California. My parents and Grandma Mazur absolutely love Halona, so it probably won't be too hard.

"We're getting new company, Rex!"

**Hey Guys! I know that's a terrible ending, but I had to end it somehow! I just really want to get to Halona being in Trenton. **

** I'm also starting a new smutty story soon! Yay!**

**Toodles for now! **

**XxBabeLoverxX**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! I'm back!**

**Okay guys, I have a bit of an AN today. I just want to say again that Halona WAS NOT RAPED. That just complicated my story too much. And I know it's kind of unrealistic for her to tell Stephanie like that but she's had a day to think about it and she's just a really strong person. It's still unrealistic but go with it. The story'll get better. This chapter is just Halona and Steph getting back to Trenton, and developing Halona's character even more. Next chapter is when Halona meets Ranger. And I guarentee it won't be the meeting you'll expect. **

**For Halona's character, I basically took all of my good qualities and the things I like and made her much better at them than I am. I do all of the stuff she does but I'm not as good.**

**Thanks for reading this entire AN, I hope you enjoy the story!**

**Oh and I changed my name, sorry for the confusion. I decided I like tart stories more than babes.**

This is it. I'm at the airport about to pick up Halona. I trusted her enough to travel by herself. I ended up borrowing some money from my parents, using some of my money, and child services gave me some to get her on the plane. I knew I was going to have to give up bounty hunting and get a job at Rangeman, so I could have a steady income, and I could properly take care of Halona, with more regular hours. I'd also have to pay for her schooling, when school gets back in in august. It's only the beginning of July now.

I guess you should know a little more about Halona. She enjoyed junk food, but not so much so it was extremely unhealthy. She liked to jog. She was in really good shape and had lots of muscle. She was a black belt in Taekwondo, even though she was only thirteen. She liked guns but liked throwing knives more. She had a set but she was almost in tears when she couldn't bring them. Little did she know I got a child services person to ship them out.

She wasn't all weapons and stuff. She was smart too. The lowest mark she's ever gotten was a B+, and she loves Rubik's cubes. She can solve a regular one in about twenty seconds, but her personal favorite is the 10x10 she ordered. She has an entire collection. She's not a real girly-girl but she can put on makeup if she has to, and usually does when just going out somewhere. She really is beautiful. She has olive skin, dark brown eyes, and long dark brown hair. She had high cheekbones, and smooth skin with no pimples. I don't know how she does it. I had a million pimples as a teenager.

So back to the present time. I was waiting next to the baggage claim when I saw her come in. She had a backpack as her carryon. I knew it would have a few Rubik's cubes and some books in it. She especially likes Stephen King. Something about his writing style intrigued her. It just creeped me out (**AN see what I did there?)**. She looked around for a second then found me. Her face lit up in a smile even though I could see the bruises on her face. She had makeup on but some of it came off. She walked- well kind of limped- over to me. I gave her a tender hug.

"Which ones are your bags?" I asked. I knew she had a few, because she had to bring a lot of her stuff.

"The Zebra, giraffe, and cheetah print ones," I guess she had an animal theme to her luggage. It was easy to pick them out. They were all there. We grabbed them and headed to my POS car. It was a red 2001 Hyundai Elantra that I got from a used car dealership. We loaded one bag into the trunk and the others in the back seat. The drive to my apartment was fairly quiet, other than a few small conversations. I guess neither of us really knew what to say. We got to my apartment and carried the bags through the lobby, into the elevator, and into my apartment. We set them down and Halona hugged me. Really tightly. I hugged her back just as hard. As hard as it would be to support us and make all these changes to my life I was truly very glad to have her in Trenton with me.


End file.
